1. Field:
The present disclosure relates generally to wires and, in particular, to the installation of wires in an aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for establishing a wire network in an aircraft based on levels of relative importance for the wires with respect to the operation of the aircraft.
2. Background:
A platform, such as an aircraft, may have many electrical systems, each of which may require one or more wires for operation. For example, a single electrical system in an aircraft may require one wire, ten wires, twenty wires, fifty wires, one hundred wires, or some other number of wires. Typically, within an aircraft, different groups of wires are bound together in the form of wire harnesses. A wire harness is an assembly of multiple wires that may be bound together using, for example, without limitation, straps, wire ties, wire lacing, sleeves, electrical tape, string, some other type of binding element, or some combination thereof.
Wire harnesses may constrain the wires together to improve the usage of space within the aircraft. Further, wire harnesses may help better secure wires against vibrations during flight. Additionally, installing a wire harness as compared to each of the loose wires within the wire harness may allow the installation process to be more easily standardized and may reduce overall installation times.
However, the complexity of electrical systems being used in aircraft is increasing. Further, these electrical systems are being increasingly integrated with each other. As the complexity and integration of these electrical systems increase, the number of electrical wires required for these electrical systems may also increase.
With some currently available methods for forming and installing wire harnesses, the different types of wires needed for different electrical systems may not be differentiated. For example, wires that are essential to flight may not be differentiated from wires that are not essential to flight. Wires that are essential to flight may include, for example, but are not limited to, wires related to the continued safe flight and landing of the aircraft. Wires that non-essential to flight may include, for example, but are not limited to, wires related to the commercial features of the aircraft.
Without differentiating between these different types of wires, wire harnesses may be formed according to the strictest electrical separation requirements, space requirements, and other types of requirements of the wires in the wire harnesses. Consequently, a larger volume of space than desired may be required for some of these wire harnesses. Further, the overall weight of the wire network formed may be greater than desired. In some cases, not being able to readily differentiate wires essential to flight from wires not essential to flight within the different wire harnesses may increase aircraft certification times and aircraft maintenance times more than desired.
Additionally, the significant cost, time, and effort associated with designing the physical layouts for the wire harnesses to be installed within an aircraft may deter some human operators from designing these types of layouts early in the design and manufacturing process. In some cases, these human operators may determine the physical layouts to be used at the time of installation of the wire harnesses. However, with some currently available techniques, the time needed to determine these physical layouts may be greater than desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.